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Fun Stuff => BAND => Topic started by: alli on 21 Apr 2008, 18:14

Title: Icelandic music
Post by: alli on 21 Apr 2008, 18:14
I´m a firm believer in that no country in the world has as many great bands per capita as iceland
unfortunately most people have only heard of Björk and Sigur Rós
so i decided to make a list of great icelandic bands for you guys to check out
hope this isn´t to much
enjoy

Benny Crespo´s Gang 
Guitar driven, syntheseized-pop-metal-rock stew
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=8258116

Brain Police
"...definitely one of Iceland’s greatest bands...driven by magnificent force and great personal charisma." -Jónsi (Sigur Rós)
http://www.myspace.com/brainpolice

Cliff Clavin
Their music is probably best described as a combination of Desert Rock and Grunge where you can hear heavy and groovy drum beats with dirty guitar riffs on top and creamy bass lines.
www.myspace.com/cliffclav

Coral
tight, funky, rocking, poppin’, proggin band
http://www.myspace.com/coralspace

Dikta
"...a band at its prime bursting onto the scene with a mature body of work that proves itself on equal footing with all the best music being made in the world today."
www.myspace.com/dikta

Dr. Spock
Twisted rock music laced with on stage antics - took the stage at Airwaves '05 as well as '06 and scored high with both the audience and media (Kerrang! kkkk).
www.myspace.com/doctorspock

Ensími
www.myspace.com/ensimi

Lights on the Highway
Unconventional rock group with dreamy melodies of voices and strings tying it together with tight rock beats.
www.myspace.com/lightsonthehighway

Mínus
"The first great rock 'n' roll gang of the 21st century" (Kerrang!) - has supported acts like Metallica, Foo Fighters, Queens of the Stone Age ...
www.myspace.com/minus

Sign
"…. a damn near face-frying experience …" KKKKK Kerrang! (live review)
www.myspace.com/sign

Celestine
Extremely heavy post-metal ala isis
http://www.myspace.com/celestinemusic

Changer
Changer plays extreme metal
www.myspace.com/changermetal

Dormah
www.myspace.com/dormah

Gavin Portland
Rocking out to alternative music while having a cup of ice-tea.
www.myspace.com/gavinportland

Gordon Riots
www.myspace.com/gordonriots

I Adapt
the kings of Iceland's hardcore scene I ADAPT (KKKK) wo reach a boiling point with their cathartic blasts of inventive hardcore.
www.myspace.com/iadapt

Momentum
This trans-genre phenomenon, with a distinct psychadelic aura, inhabits the worlds of black metal, thrash, math, and death metal.
www.myspace.com/momentumtheband

Munnriđur
www.myspace.com/munnridur

We Made God
If sigur-rós had listened to Deftones you would get We Made God.
www.myspace.com/wemadegod

Hjaltalín
Although the band is certainly hard to categorize it has influences ranging from modern indie rock to 60’s pop music to classical music.
www.myspace.com/hjaltalinband

Hraun
Hraun's concerts can be summed up in one word: Eclectic.
www.myspace.com/hraunhraun

Lay Low
The inimitable husky tones of Iceland’s Lay Low  will penetrate your heart as fast your ears. Combining kooky northern charm with smoky bar-room blues, Lay Low has taken the Icelandic music scene by storm.
www.myspace.com/baralovisa

Ourlives
"Like the intensity of Thrice mixed with the atmosphere of Sigur Ros... Literally awesome. if you get chance to see them before they are huge, then do it."
www.myspace.com/ourlives

Ólafur Arnalds
’One of the most intelligent, well-crafted and utterly beautiful records of the year.’
– In It For The Money Zine
www.myspace.com/olafurarnalds

Pétur Ben
Pétur Ben writes music you can't escape. The Icelandic singer-songwriter is a trained composer who, having earned his reputation in Iceland, is now taking on the world. Playing either alone or with his band, he engages every crowd with his easy presence and confident musicality.
www.myspace.com/peturben


Forgotten Lores
“I have mentioned before how they stole the show at Airwaves 2004, but anno 2006 they didn’t have to steal anything, the night was theirs.”
                                  - Árni Matt, Music Critic

www.myspace.com/forgottenlores
Title: Re: Icelandic music
Post by: Ishotdanieljohnston on 21 Apr 2008, 18:23
WOW- forgive my ignorance but I was under the misconception that Iceland could only produce dreamy ethereal music like mum, sigur ros and bjork. Some of those bands are hardcore! I'd always thought that Canada had the most great bands per capita
Title: Re: Icelandic music
Post by: MrSteevo on 21 Apr 2008, 18:27
I like a lot of those guys, but my friend, Canada does produce a good number of great bands. I think we may need a count!

EDIT: Hjaltalin is a really great sound, thank you for show me them, and also Eclectic is not a word.
 
Title: Re: Icelandic music
Post by: a pack of wolves on 21 Apr 2008, 18:39
I Adapt are amazing, I still spin Sparks Turn To Flames on a regular basis. I heard they were going to call it a day a little while ago, but I can't see any mention of it on their myspace now I look. I hope I was wrong. It's a shame Fighting Shit are on hiatus, they share a couple of members with Gavin Portland. Great hardcore band: http://www.myspace.com/fightingshit

Also from the ranks of Gavin Portland and Fighting Shit is My Summer As A Salvation Soldier, Ţórir Georg Jónsson's solo indie singer-songwriter stuff. He plays it with a full band, really great stuff. I was lucky enough to get to play on the same bill as them when they toured the UK with Tim Holehouse (well, I say lucky, I booked the gig and nobody else wanted to do it anyway since it was the night of an England world cup match): http://www.myspace.com/mysummerasasalvationsoldier

I think Iceland probably does have the highest awesome music ratio in the world. Canada is pretty great and all but Iceland's population is only about 300'000, that's around 1% of the population of Canada.
Title: Re: Icelandic music
Post by: alli on 21 Apr 2008, 18:53
I Adapt are amazing, I still spin Sparks Turn To Flames on a regular basis. I heard they were going to call it a day a little while ago, but I can't see any mention of it on their myspace now I look. I hope I was wrong.
they have actually called it a day, they´re final show was probably the most intense and emotional concert i have ever been to


and also Eclectic is not a word.

i´m to lazy to write my own opinion of these bands so those are not my words

WOW- forgive my ignorance but I was under the misconception that Iceland could only produce dreamy ethereal music like mum, sigur ros and bjork. Some of those bands are hardcore! I'd always thought that Canada had the most great bands per capita
i´ve noticed that alot of people think that, that´s why i made this list :-)
Title: Re: Icelandic music
Post by: Social Bacon on 21 Apr 2008, 19:01
Holy hell. I'm slowly trying to listen through all of this and I must say it is amazing.

The main reason that Canadians are so aware of our own great music is because P.E. Trudeau passed a piece of legislature while he was PM that forced all Canadian radio stations to play a certain percentage of Canadian music. Thank god for that.

But I must agree that Iceland pumps out an impossible amount of awesome music per capita.
Title: Re: Icelandic music
Post by: michaelicious on 21 Apr 2008, 19:06
Ou ou I know a good band from Iceland. They are called Amiina, but they also make "dreamy ethereal music" so I don't know if they belong in this thread.

They are still wonderful though.
Title: Re: Icelandic music
Post by: Caspian on 21 Apr 2008, 19:07
Another excellent Icelandic band in the "dreamy ethereal music" category is an excellent electronica/shoegaze band/dude called '7oi'. Well worth checking out. Thanks for the links, too. www.myspace.com/7oi
Title: Re: Icelandic music
Post by: MrSteevo on 21 Apr 2008, 19:08
Do you have any of the albums that you can post on Mediafire? Because these are great bands but few of them have links to buy the albums on Myspace.

P.s
@Alli: Do you live in Iceland?
If so I'm very envyous, I flew over there once and it was so pretty and peaceful, I know I want to move there when I'm done school.
Title: Re: Icelandic music
Post by: a pack of wolves on 21 Apr 2008, 19:10
Damn, I got all hopeful about I Adapt changing their minds for a minute there. I wish I'd been able to see them more than twice, and I can imagine what that last gig must have been like. They didn't exactly lack intensity on a regular night. Oh, and you can download or stream their music from their website http://www.iadapt.net/ for anyone who wants their stuff.
Title: Re: Icelandic music
Post by: michaelicious on 21 Apr 2008, 19:27
Another good one is Seabear! What a neat band name.

http://www.myspace.com/seabear

They do a cover of "Teenage Kicks"!
Title: Re: Icelandic music
Post by: a pack of wolves on 21 Apr 2008, 19:46
It's a pretty good cover!

I completely forgot to include Hrydjuverk when I was talking about I Adapt / Gavin Potland / Fighting Shit related bands earlier. They play some nicely raging hardcore, I badly need to get the split with Patient Zero (who were a pretty great UK band but are sadly defunct).

http://www.myspace.com/hrydjuverk
Title: Re: Icelandic music
Post by: thehollow on 21 Apr 2008, 19:51
I'm really digging the We Made God! Any chance you have any of their stuff you could upload to the mediafire thread?


Eclectic is not a word.
Yes, yes it is.  (http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=eclectic)
Title: Re: Icelandic music
Post by: 2su on 21 Apr 2008, 20:15
This thread is missing perhaps the 2nd or 3rd best iceland export...

Mugison

Grand stuff by this guy. 

www.mugison.com
http://www.myspace.com/mugison


this guy comes in 2nd to sigur ros... and is prob in my top 15 fav artists.  Think a mix between beck, tom waits, micah p hinson, faun fables and sleeptime gorilla museaum.  But really thats a piss-poor generalization.  the guy makes music like I've never heard...
Title: Re: Icelandic music
Post by: alli on 21 Apr 2008, 20:34
This thread is missing perhaps the 2nd or 3rd best iceland export...

Mugison

Grand stuff by this guy. 

www.mugison.com
http://www.myspace.com/mugison


this guy comes in 2nd to sigur ros... and is prob in my top 15 fav artists.  Think a mix between beck, tom waits, micah p hinson, faun fables and sleeptime gorilla museaum.  But really thats a piss-poor generalization.  the guy makes music like I've never heard...

how stupid of me to forget, he´s one of my favorite icelandi artists.
and for those of you living in Canada he´s about to play 10 dates with queens of the stone age
Title: Re: Icelandic music
Post by: Der Golem on 22 Apr 2008, 03:49
If any of you guys are into metal of the extreme variety you should check out Atrum as well. They don't have anything officially released, but the songs on their myspace are amazing, and they put on the best live show I have ever seen.

http://www.myspace.com/atrumiceland

Gone Postal are also a quality death metal band on the rise, listen to them if you are into that stuff, they probably won't win you over if you don't like death metal to begin with.

Also, Withered (www.myspace.com/thewitheredice) are pretty neat but not terribly original black metal.

Besides that the OP did a pretty good job of covering the best bands in our music scene.

Title: Re: Icelandic music
Post by: TheFuriousWombat on 22 Apr 2008, 10:39
Frakkur is great (Jonsi from SR solo stuff) as is Stafrćnn Hákon.
Title: Re: Icelandic music
Post by: alli on 24 Apr 2008, 04:21
i will not put any icelandic music on mediafire
Title: Re: Icelandic music
Post by: alli on 24 Apr 2008, 10:57
your welcome :-)

i would really appreciate it if you guys could tell me what you think of Cliff Calvin
Title: Re: Icelandic music
Post by: squishything on 01 May 2008, 10:11
Ah Iceland, nation of hipsters...

I respectfully disagree with alli, however. There's no way that a country with less than a 10% black population can have the best music in the world.

It is science!

I wouldn't want to live in a country where my favourite bands were popular, anyway. Half the fun of liking all that music is in being all superior about it.
Title: Re: Icelandic music
Post by: squishything on 01 May 2008, 10:38
Everyone' a hipster. nothing is taken at face value anymore, ergo: ironic  culture, ergo: endless ocean of hipsterism
Title: Re: Icelandic music
Post by: squishything on 01 May 2008, 10:53
Yuh-Huh it does!

I may be completely wrong here, (and I'm starting to suspect I am...) but hipster culture, as its understood now, revolves around an ironic appreciation of mostly nostalgic cultural trends. Well, that same ironic appreciation has permeated pretty much every facet of contemporary popular culture. nothing has any intrinsic value anymore, because no one is willing to commit to anything honestly. Therefore, in post-modern society, everyone is a "hipster".
Title: Re: Icelandic music
Post by: a pack of wolves on 01 May 2008, 11:02
Is there really something you can define as hipster culture? I always thought it was just a (usually derogatory) term for fashionable people. I don't think irony dominates everything and that nothing is done honestly either.
Title: Re: Icelandic music
Post by: squishything on 02 May 2008, 01:34
Crap, I didn't mean to be derogatory. Sorry If that was the case.

From what I've read and such, since the early nineties, hipsterism has come to be defined as an amalgam of subcultures focusing on nostalgia for various pop culture tendencies of the last century or so. The roots of this are in the 60's with "camp" culture, and in the development of whats come to be called the post-modern era. Sociologically speaking, these formerly niche subcultures have been now comodified and have become part of a new mainstream popular culture. It's evident in clothing, (pre-aged jeans, etc), music, visual aesthetics, etc., Sort of a homogenization of what used to be the counterculture. I guess Western society's run out of other cultures to comodify, and is now eating itself.

As for the whole irony and honesty thing, probably a bad choice of terminology on my part, I'm referring more to social structures, and not people as individuals, my bad.

Alternatively, I just made an off-hand comment which I've now over-elaborated into an argument on the nature of western society, thus proving that I'm just a pretentious prick. Heehee
Title: Re: Icelandic music
Post by: MrSteevo on 02 May 2008, 06:25
If Hipsters wanted to be Ironic then they should wear none Hipster clothes and make fun of hipsters, yet still be a hipster.
But fashion doesnt matter, because a man in a pirate hat can blow us all out of the water!
Back to Music!
Title: Re: Icelandic music
Post by: TheFuriousWombat on 02 May 2008, 12:04
Yeah.....actually on-topic, since this argument is horribly inane and prosaic, We Made God, mentioned by the OP, is seriously awesome. Really powerful stuff, veering from loftily atmospheric to powerfully heavy. It's a band well worth checking out although there's very little material available from what I've gathered.
Title: Re: Icelandic music
Post by: alli on 03 May 2008, 18:31
i made a small playlist of some of my favourite icelandic music and put it on mediafire, you can find the link in the mediafire thread
Title: Re: Icelandic music
Post by: Yoeni on 04 May 2008, 15:26
Wow Hjaltalín sounded fantastic, great bunch of bands you have there.
Title: Re: Icelandic music
Post by: MrSteevo on 04 May 2008, 18:45
Yes I really enjoyed Hjaltalín, is there anywhere where you can buy there album in Canadian dollars (The site was Euros)
Title: Re: Icelandic music
Post by: alli on 04 May 2008, 19:06
Yes I really enjoyed Hjaltalín, is there anywhere where you can buy there album in Canadian dollars (The site was Euros)
i´m not sure but my brothers girlfriend is in the band and i can ask her